Last week Vladimir Putin, a frequently shirtless equestrian ghoul who also happens to run the Country Formerly Known As The Soviet Union, gave a long, mildly unhinged state-of-Russia speech that made reference to a number of new Russian weapons systems, including an anti-Mar-A-Lago missile system and a nuclear-powered cruise missile. This nuclear-powered missile is interesting because it appears to be a copy of something America thought was too batshit back in the 1960s.

In his speech, Putin described the nuclear-powered cruise missile as having

“...unlimited range, so it can keep going like this forever.”

Frame from Russian animation showing vast range of missile
This unlimited range means the missile is not limited to ballistic flight paths, and could evade nearly all known conventional anti-missile defenses. The missile was shown in the animation playing behind Putin as skirting terrain at a very low altitude, presumably to evade radar defenses, all at hypersonic speeds.

Putin claims that they had a successful test of the nuclear-powered missile in 2017, and they are ready to begin manufacture of the missile. This image from the video seems to show that test in progress, with the missile itself on the inset of the video feed from a chase plane:

The video also highlighted the missile’s ability to evade missile defenses, ducking and weaving around any attempts to target it.

Putin goes on to say

“As you can understand, this is unheard of, and nobody else has such a system in the world. They may create something similar in the future, but by that time our guys will come up with new ideas as well.”
Okay, let’s stop him right there. First of all, this is by no means “unheard of”—the United States had developed essentially this exact missile concept and system back in 1955, and were developing it until about 1964, when it was cancelled. This missile was called by a few names: SLAM, for Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile or Project Pluto, or, my favorite one, The Flying Crowbar.

The U.S. scrapped the project because it was just too insane, too cruel, and would have proven to be an absolute nightmare, a literal doomsday weapon.

It just so happens that this missile was crazy enough for us to not just write about it, but make a video as well, so if you want to get up to speed, have a watch:

What Putin is describing is essentially a scaled-down Project Pluto system. The biggest difference seems to be one of scale; where Project Pluto was a massive, locomotive-sized cruise missile that carried at least 16 hydrogen bombs, the Russian re-animation of the idea appears to be a smaller system, based on the Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, and likely would carry only a single nuclear warhead.

Other than the size, the system Putin described appears nearly identical to the Flying Crowbar: effectively unlimited range, a low-altitude flight profile, the ability to maneuver as much as needed in flight, and a nuclear ramjet engine.

That nuclear engine is worth mentioning in more detail, because, like Project Pluto this Russian missile would have an added deadly effect from the incredibly radioactive exhaust the missile would spew as it rockets around the globe.

So not only would such a cruise missile be capable of striking nearly anywhere on the globe, everywhere that happened to be in its flight path would get a nice dose of highly radioactive exhaust dumped on it. Back in the 1960s, the developers of Project Pluto even envisioned a scenario where the massive missiles would just circle over enemy territory after their load of bombs was dropped, blanketing the area in radioactivity, really sealing the fate of the poor bastards on the wrong end of that missile.

The United States abandoned the SLAM/Flying Crowbar/Project Pluto system because, on some level, it was just too brutal, too cruel, too terrifying a weapon to contemplate, even at the height of the Cold War.

The fact that Russia has dusted off these awful old plans and are seriously planning a modern, smaller (which likely means that these could be built in quantity), but still equally terrifying version of this nightmare weapon should give anyone pause.

There’s no question the Russians have the technology to build these; hell, we did it over 50 years ago. The question is will they, and if they do, how bad is it?

We know these are weapons of unmatched cruelty and terror. There’s ethical, environmental, humanitarian, pretty much every category of something to be concerned about that this weapon poses severe danger to. Nothing good will come of Putin building these.
]]>Europe and Russiaxerxeshttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67026http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67023&goto=newpost
Tue, 06 Mar 2018 10:18:13 GMT

Quote:

Former Russian spy critically ill in UK 'after exposure to substance'
Sergei Skripal, 66, and woman in 30s found unconscious on bench in Salisbury shopping centre

One of the two people critically ill in a Salisbury hospital after “suspected exposure to an unknown substance” is a Russian man who was exchanged in a high-profile “spy swap” in 2010, the Guardian understands.

Sergei Skripal, 66, was one of four Russians exchanged for 10 deep cover “sleeper” agents planted by Moscow in the US.

Wiltshire police said that a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s were found unconscious on a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon.

Temporary assistant chief constable Craig Holden said that the pair were believed to have been known to each other and were in a critical condition. He added: “This has not been declared as a counter-terrorism incident and we would urge people not to speculate.

“However, I must emphasise that we retain an open mind and we will continue to review this position.”

The UK’s top counter-terrorism officer said his specialists were supporting the investigation. Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said: “Clearly it’s a very unusual case and the critical thing is to get to the bottom of what has caused this incident as quickly as possible.

WASHINGTON - Two U.S lawmakers are restarting a a bipartisan group to signal the Senate’s commitment to NATO and deterring Russian aggression.

The revival of the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization Observer Group, by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., comes after President Donald Trump ruffled NATO allies early in his presidency by criticizing the alliance.

Yet both senators downplayed the timing of their announcement, and whether it was a reaction to the president.

“I wish I could draw that connection for you,” Shaheen told reporters at the roll out event on Wednesday. “Really it’s the result of the threats from Russia. [With America’s European Deterrence Initiative], this is another opportunity for us in the Senate to show our support for the efforts to deter Russia and to make sure there’s support in the Senate for NATO.”

It also came a day after U.S. Cyber Command’s chief said he had not received orders from the White House to respond to Moscow’s meddling in U.S. elections and amid a growing call for the president to denounce Russia.

Two weeks earlier at the Munich Security Conference, no U.S. cabinet-level officials addressed the conference, and the idea of a European-led defense initiative was a hot topic.

Shaheen said that when she was at Munich, she heard less worrying from allies about America’s commitment to NATO than she had a year earlier and more about how to advanced the changed relationship.

Those changes appeared to be reflected in the new mission of the group, which was first established in 1997 amid an expansion of the alliance and disbanded in 2007, when no new countries were joining.

Since then, Russia has occupied territory in Georgia, its annexation of Crimea — declared illegal by the United Nations — and it has interfered in European democracies, as well as U.S. elections.

Now, lawmakers said the group will cover defense spending commitments of NATO members, the process of upgrading military capabilities, the alliance’s counter-terrorism efforts and the ability of member states to address non-conventional warfare.

Shaheen said lawmakers began work to relaunch the group last fall, when allies were more jittery about the U.S. commitment to NATO. It was also spurred by delays in the Senate’s approval of Montenegro’s accession to NATO — which ultimately passed with all but two votes.

The group’s revival was backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Its members will include the chairmen and top Democrats on the armed services, intelligence, foreign relations and appropriations committees.